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Does anyone know why carriers charge based on volume (total gigabits downloaded) and not congestion (gigabits downloaded during peak hours)? It seems like if t
by humanrebar 9y ago
Does anyone know why carriers charge based on volume (total gigabits downloaded) and not congestion (gigabits downloaded during peak hours)?
It seems like if the issue was contention, it would be helpful to encourage people to, for example, download podcasts and videos on wifi or overnight.
- gumby 9y agoBecause it's hard for the end user to know that in the moment, and often hard to time the download. That unpredictability would drive people away. It's like the Uber surge pricing which passes people off, no matter how much it matches Classical economic theory
- humanrebar 9y agoPhone carriers used to do "night and weekends" plans and people weren't confused about that.
- URSpider94 9y agoNo, but they resented it horribly, and the first companies to abolish those plans taunted the others mercilessly in their ads -- think guys refusing to call their mom back until Friday night to save on minutes ... Also, given how much people live on their phones these days, I doubt that congestion varies as much by time of day, as much as it just moves around from office district to suburban neighborhoods.